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Boston's Morning Newsletter
3 takeaways from WBUR's town hall with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu
Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's daily morning newsletter, WBUR Today. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here.
The house was packed last night for our CitySpace town hall with Mayor Michelle Wu. The hourlong conversation ranged from the city’s efforts to support the recent wave of immigrants (in Wu’s words, “very, very difficult”) to her latest thoughts on the MBTA (“I am feeling much, much better about the direction”).
If you couldn’t join us live, you can watch the full event on YouTube or keep scrolling for the highlights:
1. Wu’s stadium guarantee: Wu pushed back strongly on the arguments made in the pending lawsuit over the plan to renovate Franklin Park’s White Stadium and allow it to become the home field of a women’s professional soccer team. The Emerald Necklace Conservancy and 15 local residents say it’s an “unconstitutional privatization of public land.” But according to Wu, they have it backwards. “I can guarantee that this would open up the stadium for far, far more public uses than currently happens right now,” she said.
- How? Wu said the renovation plan would “at least triple” the hours Boston Public Schools can use the stadium, which has fallen into disrepair and currently sits “locked up” most of the time. Meanwhile, the women’s soccer team’s 13-15 home games a year “would end up taking less than 10% of the available hours.”
- Wu also suggested the total cost to “properly” renovate White Stadium — “over $100 million” — would be too much for the city to fork up if the lawsuit is successful. (Currently, the city and the private group behind the soccer team are splitting the cost.)
2. A page from Menino’s book? Stay with me here, but this was probably the most newsy — and wonky — remarks of the night. Wu hinted she might need help from the Legislature to shield residents from the impact of a potential commercial real estate tax shortfall. A recent report found empty offices could cost the city $1.4 billion in missed tax revenue over the next five years. According to Wu, that shortfall could shift more of the city’s property tax burden onto residential homeowners, “which is also something that we cannot have happen.”
- The city has found itself in a similar situation before. In 2003, homeowners were facing up to 40% property tax hikes, due to a combination of rising residential values and office vacancies. But then-Mayor Tom Menino sent a measure to the State House asking for permission to loosen state restrictions on how much higher commercial property taxes can be compared to residential taxes. Wu said she’s looking at doing something similar: “I think that would be important to have those tools available for us.”
3. Read between the lines: Wu has yet to officially declare plans to run for a second term next year, and she didn’t break that news last night. But when asked the obligatory question, Wu did say she feels “lucky every single day” to be mayor and noted many of her administration’s projects — like White Stadium — extend into 2026 and beyond. Wu added the decision still “needs an official vetting” with her family and others, but hinted she hopes to have “an announcement at some point about continuing to do this work.”
If you’re wondering about all the costumes: The PAX East — a celebration of all things gaming — returns today to the Seaport’s Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. Expect to see tons of fans out and about throughout the weekend in all sorts of costumes and “cosplay stuff,” according to organizer Ryan Hartman.
- Inside the expo hall: The four-day conference features panels, tournaments, merch and displays from developers. “The show is meant to encapsulate everything gaming and gaming adjacent,” Hartman said. “We’ve got rooms that are dedicated just to console games and you basically go in and rent games like a library.” Single-day entry passes start at $67.
March Mass-ness: The Bay Stater’s lone college in either NCAA basketball tournament this year — Holy Cross women — plays its first game tonight. The Crusaders take on fellow No. 16 seed University of Tennessee-Martin in a 9 p.m play-in game on ESPN 2 in Iowa City.
- Not to get ahead of ourselves, but… if Holy Cross wins tonight, they’ll play No. 1 seed Iowa — and Caitlin Clark — Saturday on the Hawkeye’s home court. (They seem to be making the best of it!)
P.S.— Did you catch us on WCVB’s Chronicle last night? The show featured our recent CitySpace panel on romance novels with Wellesley College grad Jasmine Guillory and other authors. Watch the segment here.
